Core77's Design Directory

Earlier we showed you a sketch for an unusual pickup truck from Preston Tucker's archives, and asked you to complete the design. Here are the results, in alphabetical order by last name, with captions from those who provided them: By Michael DiTullo:"A quick side cab sketch to get this party

Also, an example of cops identifying a suspect based on the worst sketch ever

When I was still in art school, I met a grad student making big bucks as a medical illustrator. I saw some of her work and it was insanely detailed and precise. In that pre-widespread-CG era, someone with her skills could make a lot of money drawing cutaways of organs.

Learn more about the available 3D printing material options and their key applications.

3D printing materials and manufacturing processes go together hand-with-hand: often choosing a material, also dictates what 3D printing processes are available to use. But with such a vast selection of 3D printing material options, how can a designer make an informed decision?

This one sketch is all you have to go on

This entry is why I'm psyched that Core77's readership contains actual working industrial designers who know how to draw. So here we go: Although Preston Tucker is often described as a car designer, he really wasn't; he was a car-obsessed entrepreneur who hired prominent designers of the 1940s, like Alex

We all know that kids totally suck at drawing, and now you know why my applications to teach art to children have all been rejected. Seriously though, have you ever wondered how a child takes in a scene that they're sketching, compared to how an adult artist does? In other

And the marketing campaign's quirky GIF

Yesterday, Nike announced the Epic React Flyknit Runner, the first running shoe that incorporates Nike React, a responsive foam that Nike chemists, designers and engineers developed back in 2017: The runner boasts a single-piece Flyknit upper with a more technical midsole in contrast. Nike React is much softer than

Inexpensive, lightweight, portable yet sturdy

Here industrial designer Eric Strebel shows you how to build your own spray booth out of foamcore. "The unit is very light, that makes it easier to build and potentially move around your shop if you don't have a permanent home for it," Strebel writes. He uses a nifty trick

Use these tools to choose the most suitable 3D printing process for your application

One of the most challenging tasks facing designers and engineers new to 3D printing is having to navigate through the vast number of 3D printing processes and materials to find the solution that is best for their application.

Now technology can even replace child labor

Growing up in the wintry American northeast, the joy of no-school Snow Days was offset by the arduous task of shoveling under adult directive. But now parents can rob their children of this character-building exercise by introducing a remote-controlled, 3D-printed miniature snowblower into the household, allowing their kids to stay

Less than $6 in parts

Watching rust get blasted off of metal is always satisfying. It must be even more satisfying to do it, particularly when you're using a self-made sandblaster. DIY'er Adam Fleisch figured out how to make one for under six bucks, using an airgun and a soda bottle, and the darn thing

Taking on the challenge of designing footwear—a deceptively complex category

This story is part three of MakerBot's series of design studies, exploring iterative design and the relationship between designers and their tools. So far we've explored form development with the bike saddle and reverse engineering with the drone rebuild—now it's time to push into something a bit more futuristic.

Forget your template today? Use this trick

This took me a second to figure out what they were doing, but when I finally understood it, I went "Holy crap:" I don't pretend to understand the black geometric magic behind this trick, and I realize that knowing how to do this will save me from neither zombies nor

How to find the right manufacturing technology for your custom parts

Selecting the right manufacturing technology for a particular application can be hard, even to the most experienced designers. With rapid developments in digital manufacturing technologies, like 3D printing, the potential benefits for designers can easily be overlooked without sufficient knowledge of the subject. The purpose of this article is to

We didn't see as many digital fabrication stories in 2017 as the year previous. But that doesn't mean innovation is slowing down; it just means it's becoming more precise and tailored. Here's some of the past year's best:

Funky closures, space-grade materials and performance insoles

This year proved to be a materials-focused year in footwear. As opposed to last year's 3D printing frenzy, this year saw more of a focus on using high-performance materials in unexpected ways. Our list of top ten footwear stories from this year includes everything from sneaker sketching to Nike's Flyknit

After more than a century in the footwear design business, New Balance has a history of creating some of the most iconic shoes in the world of sport and fashion. From the timeless 990 running shoe, to the fashionable New Balance 574, the Massachusetts-headquartered company has consistently earned its stripes

Thirty years ago, German-born Harald Belker never imagined he would get the chance to work in the US. Today, we chatted to him from his home in Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles, about his illustrious career in industrial design. Harald's career is show stopping. From designing cars for high-end

A 3D printer isn't just a prototyping tool; it's a sketchbook, a second set of hands, and all told—a paradigm shift.

Bikes are amazing machines. They're simple yet complex; a perfect symbol for the intersection of form and function. For over a century, that beauty has drawn the attention of designers and engineers looking to leave their mark on the bicycle's legacy. I'm one of those designers teetering on the edge

The yearly SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) Show is when custom builders, resto-mod officialdom, gear heads and car nuts of all kinds decent on Las Vegas in a rowdy clash of screeching tires and burning rubber—that isn't a hyperbole. Out front of the show is a low G skid pad

Michael DiTullo shows us how to create surface differentiation with color

In this video, I show you how I quickly sketch a car using a very simple color technique. Using sky tones for all of the upward facing surfaces and warm tones for all of the ground facing surfaces, I quickly and effectively show off the surface changes in these two

They're like miniature jackhammers and use micropercussion rather than light

There's an alternative to laser engraving that you may not have heard of: Pneumatically-powered dot peen marking machines. These produce the engravings mechanically via micropercussion, and it's pleasing to watch in action: If you don't like the dot-matrix aesthetic, they can also produce much finer engravings: They also make nifty

Talk about your unintended consequences

Constructing a nuclear missile requires access to precision manufacturing techniques. Isolated North Korea, saddled as it is with poverty, starvation and maniacal leadership, is not known as a manufacturing powerhouse. But as it turns out, they started building their own CNC machines in the early '90s, according to Reuters. The

There's no bed, no gantry, no hold-down, and no workpiece size limitation

This is incredible. An Italian startup called Springa has invented a CNC mill that does away with 90% of the mass and materials of a conventional gantry-style machine. Check out the Goliath, now live on Kickstarter: Good gosh. This thing is like the Shaper Origin, except you don't

So you say you're ready to start sketchnoting. Maybe you're not much of a sketcher but you take a lot of notes, and are interested in making them more meaningful and interesting, but you're afraid your drawings are too crude. For you, it's important to stress that sketchnotes—although they are inherently a visual medium—do not require drawing ability of any kind.

There are a lot of Star Trek fans out there, and while I'm not one of them, I wasn't surprised to see all of the hype about the franchise's new show. I was surprised, however, to come across a bunch of articles this morning raving about the opening credit sequence

As far as mass production methods go, sand casting is one of the oldest. 3D printing is one of the newest. Dutch design and engineering consultancy Arup has figured out how to combine the two, allowing one to enjoy both the low cost of the former and the physical complexity

Clear your schedules October 6th and 7th

To help designers of all levels fine tune their sketching skills, Advanced Design Sketching (in partnership with Autodesk) will be hosting SQ1CON, a two-day conference specifically focused on design sketching. The Advanced Design Sketching organization began as a small summer workshop for a handful of design students, but the students

Weekly Makers Roundup

Weekly Maker’s Roundup is a weekly list of our favorite builds, tips and tricks for makers. Ranging from classic to novel, practical to outrageous, these projects represent what making is all about—problem solving and having fun.

Weekly Makers Roundup

Weekly Maker’s Roundup is a weekly list of our favorite builds, tips and tricks for makers. Ranging from classic to novel, practical to outrageous, these projects represent what making is all about—problem solving and having fun.

This craftsman's experimental technique looks pretty cool

Artist Cam Bergerman counts archery and leatherworking among his hobbies. Having learned how to craft leather handle wraps the traditional way, with stitching, he decided to experiment a bit: I had an idea a while back for a way to join a seam in leather without anything but the leather

Weekly Makers Roundup

Weekly Maker’s Roundup is a weekly list of our favorite builds, tips and tricks for makers. Ranging from classic to novel, practical to outrageous, these projects represent what making is all about—problem solving and having fun.

Festool users have already done the measuring work for you

When it comes to modular, portable tool storage, it's hard to beat the Systainers designed by German company Tanos. They come in five sizes and can be linked together for easy transport. While Systainers can be purchased separately at places like Woodcraft, Tool Nut and Amazon, Festool products all come